WELCOME to the Creative Eye magazine, January 2025 issue No. 96. We have a range of awe-inspiring articles for you to enjoy in this edition.
Award-winning photographer, Honey J Walker, demonstrates her love of magic in a series of stunning images originating from a light globe found in a garden centre.
Honeymooning in the Italian Dolomites with only an iPhone at hand, fine art photographer, Sam Gregory captures beautifully textured images of these magnificent mountains.
See the world from an entirely unique perspective with Donn Delson’s breathtaking images, taken from heights up to 12,000 feet.
Landscape photographer, Vanda Ralevska explores streets at night, capturing mystery and atmosphere in her images.
X-ray artist, Hugh Turvey, shares a love story revealing the unseen beauty of the world through this unique technology.
Steve Geer discovers how interesting shadows can be used creatively in street photography.
COMMITTEE
Chair
Clive Watkins ARPS creativecomms@rps.org
Secretary Graham Lingley LRPS creativesecretary@rps.org
Treasurer Nigel Rea ARPS creative.treasurer@rps.org
Digital Exhibition Coordinator David Rutter FRPS creativeimage@rps.org
Dancing in the Light of the Moon by Honey J Walker ARPS
Editor Moira Ellice ARPS
Editorial Assistant Dr Patricia Tutt ARPS
Design Lester Bennett
Printed by Keith Avis Printers Ltd Rear of 68 High Street, Hadleigh, Ipswich, Suffolk IP7 5EF, UK
FROM THE CHAIR
As we embark on a new year, we are thrilled to continue inspiring, educating, and connecting photographers who are passionate about pushing the boundaries of creative photography.
In this issue, our editor, Moira Ellice, has curated a diverse range of content designed to spark your creativity and elevate your craft. Discover innovative techniques, learn from experienced practitioners, and explore the latest trends in creative photography.
Our goal as a RPS Special Interest Group is to provide a platform where you can share your ideas, receive feedback, and connect with a supportive community of like-minded individuals. So, I encourage you to get involved by attending our online talks, our walks, entering our annual digital exhibition as well as sharing your work with the community. You will find a wealth of information on our web page www.rps.org/ceg
I am pleased to report that our Members’ Day in November was a big success. We were entertained and informed by a fantastic selection of speakers drawn from our Group’s membership. Topics ranged from theatre photography to spectacular aerial images taken from door-off helicopters. It wa s great to see so much creative variation on display. If you were unable to join us on the day, the recordings of the talks are available on our website.
Our 34th Annual General Meeting will be held online on Sunday 2 3rd March at 10:30 GMT. I do hope you will join us and stay on for the ta lk by Fine Art and Landscape Photographer, Sam Gregory.
Finally, I would like to extend a very special ‘thank you’ to Steve Varman who, after doing the layout of our publications for many years, is now taking a wellearned rest. Steve’s outstanding design talent has meant the quality of the Creative Eye has been one of the most professional looking magazines produced by an RPS group.
Wishing you a very happy and creative 2025.
Enjoy the Light!
The
Royal Photographic Society The Creative Eye Group Annual General Meeting 2025
Sunday 23 March 2025 at 10:30 GMT
The AGM will be followed by a talk Working in Projects and Collections with Sam Gregory.
Booking: www.rps.org/ceg
The AGM Notification & Agenda, Committee Nominees, Committee Nomination Form, Minutes of the 2024 AGM, Accounts for Year Ended 2024 are available on our website.
www.rps.org/groups/creative-eye/documents
LOLLIPOPS AND MAGIC
HONEY J WALKER ARPS
The thing I love about creative photography is that anything can become a jumping off point. You don’t need to travel to honeypot locations, in fact, with a bit of imagination, and by giving yourself the freedom to play, the most mundane of objects can become an exciting other world
My Lollipops and Magic series originated from a light globe that I saw
on a dusty shelf in a garden centre. I took the base image on my phone and started playing with no real intention for a series.
At the time my computer had had a complete meltdown, and I was tearing my hair out as I thought all my image files had been lost. I had no means of using Lightroom or Photoshop and so I had to resort to playing with apps on my phone to create this series.
I had recently taken an online workshop with Karen Devine, who only uses her iPhone and apps or Procreate to achieve her wonderful images, so I had already lost the stigma of using my phone as my paintbox.
I have been layering my images for a while as I find the process of multiple exposures really unlocks my creativity. It feels as if I am a
Fireworks of the Heart
Moonbeams and Marshmallows
Diamonds in the Sky
Love Notes to a Butterfly
child again in a candy store. No expectations, just pure delight at mixing images and seeing what happens. Letting go of the right side of the brain, the thinking part, the logical part. Letting the left side take over. This is more spiritual, more instinctive, less inhibited by rules and formulas. Normally I shoot with a Canon EOS R5 and combine my images in camera, not predetermining what I am looking for but allowing the images to reveal themselves. Using the iPhone was different as I combined images in PhotoSplit and edited in Snapseed, but the thought process was the same. Just play, experiment, be open to the unexpected.
As the series developed, the only rule I gave myself was that the base image of the globe had to be in all the images. Otherwise, I could play to my heart’s content. I think the stress of potentially losing my image library was a counterpoint to creating what turned out to be a magical, whimsical series.
As anyone who knows me can attest, I am never the most organised person and for some reason technology and I really have a love-hate relationship. It is always a mystery to me how I create the images. There is no prescribed formula. I recently took a Street Photography workshop with a young, very talented photographer. He immediately told the group he would not be divulging his trade secrets, in case people tried to copy him. I find that way of thinking very strange. I know that I can stand next to any other photographer and photograph the same thing, and our results will be completely different. My images come from inside me, so the camera, iPhone, or whatever device I use, becomes just a conduit and the same is true for everyone. Even straight photography will result in different images, unless you put your tripod in the exact place at the exact time as the previous photographer. Even then I am not sure the results are identical and if they are, who cares?
All photography is in some way a self-portrait, part of your essence is bound forever within the image you create. I love that!
My Lollipops and Magic series is most assuredly a reflection of my personality.
I love magic, I see it in everything around me, from a dusty globe on a shelf to a splotch of paint on a rusty boat. It is important in our lives to stop and appreciate the beauty around us,
Dancing In the Light of the Moon
Bewitch my Heart with your Silvered Lies
the people in our lives who matter, the small everyday moments that are the real magic in our lives.
Human connection, emotional connection are the foundation to our mental wellbeing. My images are my subconscious finding oxygen and the practice of photography is a mental balm, a form of meditation. When I get completely absorbed in a subject, I lose all track of time, my world narrows and widens at the same time, as my imagination and creative centre take over. I have been known to spend hours, rooted to the same spot, entranced by the endless possibilities of a crack in a wall, a shadow on a door, the dancing light on a window.
Equally through photography I have found my tribe, a group of incredible artists who share the same language of imagination and generosity. My journey would have been much less exciting and wondrous without them. So, I must give a special mention to Valda Bailey (who gave me my Eureka moment), Doug Chinnery (endlessly patient), Linda Bembridge (an inspiration), Susi Petherick (simply a brilliant artist), Edie Clifford (who is amazing) and Paul Sanders (the kindest person on the planet) and so many more.
honeyjwalker.com
Faith in a Snow Globe
Looking for Moonbeams and Finding Magic
ADOLOMITI DREAMSCAPES
SAM GREGORY
honeymoon may not seem like the obvious place for photographic discoveries, but I probably didn’t have a normal honeymoon. Clocking an average of 10 miles walking per day with regular elevation shifts of 1,000 ft it’s safe to say there was no relaxing by the pool with a glass of something cold going on. My wife is Italian and a great lover of the mountains; as such we spent a glorious time in the Dolomites, albeit with some gruelling days walking up, down, and in-between.
It would be easy to say that the fact I’m a doting husband was the reason I left my camera back in the UK. The reality is that there was no issue with the green light from my newlywed, but merely a reluctance on my part about lugging heavy gear on such long walks. As such, I chose to use my iPhone to make some images, and thankfully Giulia was patient with the stop-start nature of our travels in the Pale Mountains.
I’m fortunate to have visited the Dolomites regularly over the last 15 years in all seasons and conditions. As well as being visually stunning it’s also a place stuffed full of textures, and I’m a texture fanatic. It started when I was a kid, always fascinated by texture variations. Nowadays any trip out into the landscape with a camera leads me to literally feeling my way around a location. I have favourite rocks on my local beach here in Dorset that I go and stroke - I know, it’s a bit weird isn’t it, but every object has a texture character that is unique and gives off its own energy.
All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.
Edgar Allan Poe
All technique should be part of interpretation, derived from the idea to be realised.
Prof. Anton Weinberg
So, there I am, full of the joys of life having just got married, walking at altitude in the June heat of the mountains with big blue skies, an iPhone in hand, and a slightly odd fetish for stroking rocks, and something just clicked. I would suggest as photographers we’re always seeking that moment of alchemy where a medley of intangible conditions come together to spark a creative discovery. Once again, a honeymoon may not seem the obvious place for this, but perhaps it should be. Arguably there’s no happier time in life: you have freedom from any work and responsibilities, and when you combine that lucidity of mind and heart with somewhere you love then perhaps it’s inevitable that something new could grow.
All the images in the Dolomiti Dreamscapes are multiple exposures taken and then blended together on my iPhone. Each final image is a combination of exposures taken on the same day from elements within the landscapes we encountered whilst walking. There are no added texture layers from the editing software, every layer is an image from the natural environment. This included wider vistas of 2,500 ft mountains down to abstractions of rock surfaces just 10 cm long. Late in the afternoons I would experiment with blending the day’s exposures together to form this new, unseen world of my imagination. Texture was a key theme throughout the images, as well as the idea of an imagined dreamscape where scale, form, and tones could intermingle to create a new world.
The blending of exposures on the phone involved some back and forth and, many times, the combinations didn’t fit coherently together. But unlike my usual method of sitting on images for months sometimes to digest them, these images were all created and either saved or deleted on the day depending on if I was happy with the outcome. I edited them on purpose in a way that I could never go back and unpick the layers or re-edit any image once finished. In this sense they are all one-offs which can neither be re-shot nor re-edited. This was a much looser and experimental way of working which was exciting, akin to a jazz musician taking a solo during a live performance. I was never wholly sure where the edit was going until I got there and there were some melodic mis-steps on the way.
The darker images in the series were all made during that summer visit, but I wanted to create a set of winter images that would act as a visual and thematic contrast. So, the next winter, when we returned to the Dolomites, I set about creating the snow and ice-based images. This was much harder, not only because everything tended to be under a blanket of snow so there were fewer texture contrasts to construct, but also because the initial wind of creative excitement had slightly diffused, and I had to work hard not to force these images into existence.
After curating down from around 90 variations I created a small book featuring 30 of the dreamscapes. I was happy to find the Sustainable Print Co. who have a range of ecofriendly paper options which includes a recycled white fibre which was perfect to add some texture to these images which I wanted to realise in print format. I have a small handful of these books remaining so if you felt compelled to offer us a belated Wedding gift then any purchases through my website would be gratefully received.
samgregory-photography.com
instagram@ samgregory_photography
DISCOVERING NEW PERSPECTIVES
MY JOURNEY INTO AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY
DONN DELSON
I’ve always been captivated by cherry blossoms, a sight I’ve admired from the ground countless times. But from above, I knew they would provide an entirely different perspective. I flew to Japan specifi cally to capture their ephemeral beauty from the sky. Early one spring morning, hovering above the mountains east of Kyoto, I spotted it - a delicate, hidden waterfall cascading through the branches, framed by a symphony of pinks and whites, a secret only visible from that elevated perspective.
From thousands of feet above, the world reveals itself in ways most people rarely experience. Patterns emerge, colors merge, and familiar landscapes can take on almost otherworldly forms, be they natural, man-made, or a combination. When I first began exploring aerial photography, I was immediately taken with the power of this elevated perspective - not just for creating art, but for the feelings it evoked in me,
and for the way it challenged some of my existing assumptions about my world. Each time I lean out of a doorless helicopter, looking down at the expansive panorama below me, I find myself thankful for the opportunity to do this at this point in my life and to be able to share the best parts of it with others through my photography.
Although I’d been an amateur photographer since high school, when
I used my Rolleiflex to shoot action photos of the sports games for the school newspaper, photography was not my first career path.
After years as an entrepreneur, using my creative energies to build businesses, including one in entertainment merchandising, representing a number of major music artists, I felt a need in retirement to reconnect with the creative freedom I found previously in photography.
Cascade
In 2014, on a helicopter trip over the Remarkable Mountains in Queenstown, New Zealand, the pilot offered to let me shoot out of an open door, and I was hooked. I returned to Los Angeles and immediately began exploring my options.
I could have chosen drones to capture aerial shots. They’re accessible, relatively easy to control, and offer clear, usually stable footage. But drones are legally limited to certain maximum heights.
To charter a helicopter is expensive, and in some parts of the world, prohibitively so. For me, there’s no substitute for the gift of seeing the world from heights of up to 12000 feet (roughly 3600 metres). At 75, I’m also
more technically comfortable looking through my Fuji GFX 100 or my Nikon D850 than at a video screen.
In a doorless helicopter, with the wind in my face, I’m in my element, fully in the moment - hunting visually for the shapes, colors, patterns, and textures below that create those magical sightings worthy of inclusion in my collections.
For me, there’s an intimacy and spontaneity in being visually connected to my subject, looking out and down without my camera, and then drawing that world into the EVF and framing my shot.
Each flight is unique. Sometimes, I return to base with nothing photographically worthwhile. Many of
my favorite images were serendipitous sightings, things I didn’t know about and could not plan for. That amalgam of surprise and perspective is a huge part of the equation. It’s a partnership with chance, and that uncertainty ignites my curiosity and drives my creativity.
I’ve often found that things we take for granted on the ground - the grids of city streets, the ploughing and planting patterns in farmland, even the arrangements of umbrellas at a beach resort - take on a completely different identity from above, often revealing something abstract and almost painterly, offering a perspective that transcends mere representation.
Stardate: December 2018, somewhere below radar near South Beach, Miami I encountered what could only be described as a cosmic showdown. Hovering above, I noticed what looked like a Mothership locked in a stan doff with an attacking squadron from another dimension. Amidst the laser exchange, one invader basked, oddly unperturbed by the dramatic scene unfolding around it. We cleared the area quickly to avoid any ‘entanglements,’ but not before capturing this surreal moment, a vision straight out of deep space.
Magic Carpet
One of my earliest and most playful images, Xylophones, captures rows of shipping containers from 3500 feet (roughly 1000 metres) from a flight over the Port of Los Angeles.
Every day, people see containers traveling down the highway loaded on lorries. Rarely do they see them parked en masse in holding lots. From above, the random permutations and combinations of their placement, colors, and shapes align in a way that feels both orderly and vibrant, transforming a simple scene into a vibrant visual panoply. Looking down, the rows of multicolored containers immediately reminded me of a giant musical xylophone.
At exhibitions, it’s fun to watch viewers initially mistaking them for books lined up on shelves - until they spot a tiny white truck nearby, a detail that momentarily confuses and then delights them. It’s this whimsical perspective that fascinates me, blending the everyday with the magical and inviting people to see the familiar as something completely new.
My influences reach beyond photography. Artists like Piet Mondrian and Mark Rothko inspire me, not just in their use of color and shape but in their ability to express complexity through simplicity. I strive to create
images that echo that same visual purity. I don’t seek to document but rather to find a way of balancing detail and simplicity that leaves room for the viewer’s own interpretation. In all my work, I strive to present images that evoke in me some emotional response. Famous Bauhaus abstract textile artist Annie Albers once said, “You know it’s art if it affects how you breathe.” When I see something that makes me catch my breath, I know I’m on the right path.
I’ve also come to see my work as a conversation with the viewer. By printing my images large and frameless, I invite people to enter the scene to engage with it as if they’re
with me in the doorless helicopter, with no boundaries or encumbrances to impede the view.
One of the most rewarding aspects of this journey has been hearing how my work resonates with others. When I was in London last May, I had the privilege of taking several journalists up with me to see the city from my perspective, as a way for them to better understand my process and artistic intent. Afterward, they all stated that the London they thought they knew well became, from above, a city they had never before experienced.
Xylophones
Oahu, Hawaii
Tonka Symphony
AS THE NIGHT FALLS
SOMETIMES IT’S DARKNESS THAT MAKES THE LIGHT MAGICAL
VANDA RALEVSKA
Prague, 2.15 am
When I started photography, I was forever chasing the light at the edges of the day. I believed that it was then when all the magic happened: the magic that transforms this world into an extraordinary place. However, with time I realised that the magical hours start much earlier than sunrise and last much longer than sunset. Gradually, my favourite time of the day shifted to the blue hour and twilight, and I started enjoying the time in between, when the night is not over yet, but the day has a long way to go before it wakes up. Nowadays, I love exploring in the late night and early morning hours, when the world is completely still and fast asleep, and the sky untouched by dawn colours.
It’s the stillness and tranquillity that attracted me to the nighttime to start
with. There is something in the night’s peace and quiet that draws me out. I like to be alone at such time, when all the noises of the day fade away, when the world forgets about the dusk, and the dawn is not even a promise yet.
As the daylight fades and the shadows deepen, the world disappears under the cloak of the night. All the exacting details become trivial and vanish within its dark folds. Only what the night cannot erase from the imagination remains. For me, the night is the time for savouring the silence and solitude. It is time for reflection, when the passing moments linger on and everything seems to slow down, as if time stopped to take a long breath before a new day begins.
Walking through a deserted city in the hours before dawn is a dream-like experience. Everything seems familiar
and at the same time everything feels strange. You know that behind the darkened windows there is life, but for now it is suspended, deeply drowned in a dream. Reality seems very unreal. Nighttime is another world where the darkness shrouds the ordinary streets into a mystery. You can see the city in an entirely new light, figuratively and literally. Seemingly ordinary and uninspiring scenes take on a whole new appearance. There is something haunting about a solitary walk along empty alleyways, from deep shadows into the flickering light of the streetlamps, where all the footsteps died out and all the voices disappeared in the distance. Where you can get lost in your thoughts, far away from the distractions of the ordinary life.
Even in darkness, I still chase the light. It is true that at night we lose
In the Night Churchyard
In classical music, Frédéric Chopin’s Nocturnes are a series of lyrical piano pieces that evoke a sense of deep emotional resonance and quiet introspection, exploring themes of longing, nostalgia, and melancholy. On the dark side of the emotional spectrum, I have a favourite example. When walking through deserted, dark back alleys, I quite often think of Dire Straits’ Private Investigations, especially the ingenious instrumental passage. The initial pulsing bass underneath acoustic guitar reminds me of footsteps and intensifying heartbeat, building a sense of suspense. Then it explodes with the lead guitar and powerful piano chords, signifying something ominous is about to unfold. If you listen carefully, you will notice some understated effects such as heavy breathing, a wailing cat, muffled glass shattering, and seconds later a door latch opening: the sinister sounds of an intruder breaking and entering. The music conveys so well the brooding, almost noir-like tension you
can experience when you are alone in the middle of the night. The world closes in on you, your senses become heightened, sound imposes its will on your shrouded vision.
J.R.R. Tolkien masterfully describes these feelings when speaking about Eowyn, one of the key characters of The Lord of the Rings trilogy: But who knows what she spoke to the darkness, alone, in the bitter watches of the night, when all her life seemed shrinking, and the walls of her bower closing in about her, a hutch to trammel some wild thing in?
Night is undeniably one of my favourite times to explore cities. Typically crowded streets are empty, the mood is intensified and I have a quiet time to myself for thinking, and to reflect. But I would be lying if I said that I don’t feel any fear when I am alone walking through hidden corners and dark alleyways. I am always aware of my surroundings. I make sure I know where I am going and avoid certain areas where I don’t feel safe;
and when in doubt, I walk away. I always listen to my instinct. Over the years I have learnt that it is always right. Depending on location, I usually choose to go out at times when most of the city is asleep. There are such times, even in the big cities that never sleep. I have found early mornings are the quietest possible times. For most of the year from about 3.00am, after bars close, but well before sunrise, the night is just as dark and the light just as good.
Being out in the early morning has another advantage. It allows you to experience and capture the wondrous moments when the pure black sky transcends into inky blue, and later, when the dawn’s deepening purples, and soft pink and bright orange hues start blending in as the sun begins to rise. And finally, it gives you a chance to partake in the magic hour of sunrise itself. But that is a story for another time.
Nobody in Sight
Silent Witness
mylenscapes.uk
instagram@mylenscapes
After the Rain
Back Alley
Night Bridge
SCIENCE AND ART: A LOVE STORY
BEYOND THE VISIBLE: MY X-RAY ARTISTIC JOURNEY
HUGH TURVEY ASIS HonFRPS
As an X-ray artist, my career has been dedicated to revealing the unseen beauty of the world through this unique technology. X-ray photography, with its ability to penetrate solid objects and reveal hidden structures, offers a powerful medium for artistic expression. This journey has been a blend of scientific curiosity and artistic exploration, pushing the boundaries of traditional art.
My love for photography took root during my studies at places like Blackpool and The Fylde College. Art history lessons opened my mind to artistic styles like Russian
Constructivism, a movement celebrating the beauty of function and stripped-down form. I believe there’s a parallel here to my work, as X-rays naturally reveal the hidden forms and functions beneath the surface of everyday objects.
My hands-on analogue X-ray photographs are made with large sheets of X-ray-sensitive black and white film. I manipulate techniques such as overexposure, multiple exposure, chemical processing, filtering, rigs, mechanics, physics, happy accidents, trial and error, and the pursuit of the aesthetic. I call these Xograms
Why Xograms? My X-ray photographs are in fact X-ray photograms, created using a cameraless contact technique. As you may know from your art history lessons, artistic photograms have been called by various names over the years, often attributed to their creators, like American Man Ray’s Rayographs or German Christian Schad’s Schadographs. The defining difference between my photograms and those produced by these early creators is the frequency of the light used to make the exposure, which is defined with the letter X. Hence, Xogram (Greek έξω γραμ).
Xogram of sagittal plane view and of transverse plane view of a male foot in a running shoe. Commissioned by German running shoe brand Joe Nimble®
Ana Atkins’ cyanotypes also demonstrate the innovative science/ art application of photograms. Her work inspired our recent project with National Geographic Magazine. We combined two photogram techniques to produce a series of seashell images that accompany an article about shell growth written by Derek E. Moulton, Professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Oxford. This blend of cyanotype and X-ray photograms could be called cyanograms or X-raytypes, but I prefer the term Xogram.
My dedication to pushing the boundaries of photography hasn’t gone unnoticed. In 2014, I was awarded an Honorary Fellowship from the Royal Photographic Society and became an RPS Accredited Senior Imaging Scientist in 2021. Currently, I serve on the RPS Awards Committee, Chair the Science Committee, and consult with other institutions such as the Royal Observatory, Royal Society, Royal Institute, NHM, and V&A.
This year, I’m excited to be a part of the judging panel for the Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition, as a representative of the RPS. This collaboration unites two leading organizations dedicated to making science accessible to wider audiences through photography. The competition celebrates the beauty and significance of scientific phenomena captured through photography.
Amalgamation of two contact imaging processes, cyanotypes and x-ray. From a long-term project for National Geographic USA in conjunction with Prof Derek Moulton at Oxford University.
Top Xogram of specimen: Murex pecten
Below Xogram of specimen: Nautilus macromphalus
Opposite Xogram of shell montage
The Royal Society is a self-governing fellowship of many of the world’s most distinguished scientists. Its fundamental purpose, since its foundation in 1660, is to recognize, promote, and support excellence in science and encourage its development and use for the benefit of humanity.
The Royal Society and the Royal Photographic Society have a long history of mutual members. Notably, on January 31, 1839, the Royal Society hosted the reading of Henry Fox Talbot’s seminal paper, Some account of The Art of Photogenic Drawing, or the process by which natural objects may be made to delineate themselves without the aid of the artist’s pencil.
This event followed Britain’s first photographic exhibition at the Royal Institution on January 25, which showcased Talbot’s groundbreaking work.
As I look to the future, I am excited by the potential of technology to continue to evolve and inspire. Whether it’s through exploring new subjects, developing innovative techniques, or collaborating with other artists and scientists, I am committed to pushing the boundaries of X-ray art. Through my work, I hope to inspire others to see the world in new and unexpected ways, revealing the hidden beauty that lies just out of sight.
Xogram of analogue alarm clock, titled Wake Up. This was for fun and reminds me how I look when woken by any alarm clock.
Xogram of various holiday items in a case. Front cover commissioned by Smithsonian Magazine USA.
Xogram of male and female thornback rays. Commissioned by Ridley Scott Associates UK for style reference for Ford TV commercials. We had the rays caught off Essex, x-rayed later that afternoon and in the evening ate them; to discover we don’t like eating thornback rays.
Xogram of rabbit in hat, titled Magic. The magician Teller (of Penn and Teller) bought this to hang at home but also requested an additional version with no rabbit... so by switching the pictures he could make the rabbit disappear, or as he called it The Old Switcheroo.
x-rayartist.com
instagram.com/hughturvey
Xogram of my wife’s leg in a stiletto, titled Femme Fatale was created very early on in my career for a Series destined for the Science Photo Library UK. It has been seen and used everywhere including Vogue and Casa Vogue Italia.
LOOKING FOR SHADOWS
STEVE GEER FRPS
Some of the earliest photographic images were of shadows. These photograms were made without a camera by illuminating objects placed on photo-sensitive paper. This photogram technique is still taught in many introductory photography courses. Thus, the use of shadows as photographic subjects, with or without a camera, has a long history. In spite of this, for most of us, shadows are uncommon photographic subjects and for a long time they were not on my visual shopping list. All that changed one sunny afternoon in Chicago when I noticed a striking example which I felt compelled to photograph. Since then, I’ve been on the lookout for interesting shadows.
I live in Chicago and my photography is predominantly city-based: architectural photography, abstract images, and more recently, street photography. Before I began to explicitly look for them, I had already used interesting shadows in a couple of the images in my series ‘Stories to be Written’ (see Creative Eye No. 86, September 2021). In this series I was combining two photographs, the first with the camera pointing straight down at a found object on the ground, and the second taken from the same spot with the camera pointing straight up. In a couple of cases the found objects were shadows. They were ‘found’ not because I was looking specifically for shadows but because I was looking for things on the ground in an interesting up-down environment.
After I began to explicitly look for interesting shadows, I discovered they could be used creatively in street photography. I was walking around with my camera in Chicago’s Chinatown Square, a large open plaza in a busy shopping area. At one end of the plaza, trees projected shadows onto a brick wall and a number of small statues created additional late-afternoon shadows on the ground. I positioned myself to add my own shadow to the mix and then waited for pedestrians to pass by close to the wall, contributing themselves and their shadows to the composition. I had already taken quite a few shots
like this when I spotted a group of people approaching close to me. I judged they would obscure my view just as another group coming from the opposite direction would project their shadows onto the wall. There was no time to think, but instinctively I pressed the shutter release when both groups were within my field of view. The result was one of those lucky shots that are only partly planned. The three people in the near-group all cast their shadows in an interesting way; one onto a tree trunk, the second onto the back of the third passer-by whose shadow in turn was perfectly positioned between that of the tree and my own shadow. All of these shadows not only helped create depth by adding layers within the image but also helped to tell a story. We are free to decide what that story is, but let’s say it is about looking. One of the near pedestrians is looking at the far group, two girls walking near the wall. The three near pedestrians and their shadows create a visual vector pointing in the direction of that looking, which helps knit the layers of the photograph together. Then, of course, there is my shadow, the flâneur looking from the outside, and finally, the girls not looking.
In addition to looking for shadows for use in street photography, I’ve also been on the lookout for examples that can be used to create abstract images. In Chicago I’ve found places where complex structures throw intricate shadows onto textured surfaces. My preference is to include in the frame a small part of the structure that creates the shadow. This enables an escape from the tyranny of pure abstraction and adds interest by inviting us, as viewers, to imagine the complete structure.
Finally, there are many other ways shadows can be exploited in city photography. The selection in this article is just a sampler … an example of what happens when something new is added to my visual shopping list … the menu of things that I’m either consciously or subconsciously looking for. The list changes as new projects start and others are concluded, but some items endure and my quest for interesting shadows is likely to continue for many more seasons.
stevegeer.com
EMBRACING THE AI REVOLUTION
PHOTOGRAPHY’S EVOLVING LANDSCAPE
JOE HOUGHTON
Change is a constant in all our lives, and there are always peaks and troughs in the pace, but it’s happening whether we are aware of it or not. The changes brought by AI are bringing a lot of new possibilities in quick succession - some see this as a threat, some as opportunity. Photography is a technology-based discipline, whether using wet plates and chemicals or sensors and computers, so as technology changes, so will the possibilities in our field. All the old possibilities are still there, but the field widens as new options become possible, so what seems like a revolution of fast-paced change is actually just an on-going evolution of options,
giving us a wider palette of ways to capture and create our photographs.
For many years one of the phrases bandied about was SOOC – ‘straight out of camera.’ This was meant to indicate some kind of standard where resulting photos were somehow more valid because they had no way of being manipulated – recording the scene with no change of editing or changing what was represented. Well with AI, SOOC no longer has the same meaning, as the cameras we routinely use today are very different beasts from the pre-digital SLR’s many of us cut our photographic teeth on, or even the earlier generations of digital cameras that didn’t have so many of the AI features built
in as the powerful computerpowered beasts we use today. AI is now baked into the tech we use to take almost every photo we capture. Autofocus uses AI to predict the movement of subjects in the frame, and to recognise elements such as the eye of that gannet 100 metres away or more. The AI will then control the focus and can even adjust exposure as the gannet dives, transitioning from bright sky behind to darker sea. Shooting more frames than video per second is now commonplace for wildlife shooters, so keeping your subject in frame so you can then choose the precise composition you prefer from a dozen or so virtually identical frames captured becomes
Dreaming of Electric Sheep
your biggest challenge – focus and the triple calculation of ISO, shutter speed and aperture largely handled now by the camera in many cases (unless of course you are in full manual mode).
The different subject tracking modes most modern cameras now sport are also AI powered – learning from a database of hundreds of typical images of the type – people, vehicles, birds etc, the AI ‘knows’ what to look for and lock on to. Last year I upgraded from a Fuji X-T2 to an X-T5. The changes made in those three generations were significant – I couldn’t believe how good the bird eye tracking was as I followed a crow swooping around a field with my 400 mm – I couldn’t even make out the bird’s eye, but the camera focus square was locked onto it whilst I kept the bird within the frame. Switch to people face recognition and now your human subject’s eye is kept sharp and the seven stops of stabilisation in the camera compensates for shaky hands as well!
So, the tech in the cameras is advancing – Olympus now has inbuilt ND graduated filters you can apply by dragging them on screen before you take the shot, and most high-end cameras now support focus-stacking, HDR and lots of other ways to manipulate your RAW data into a finished (or processed) form whilst still in-camera. And we’re all no doubt already familiar with the advances in automatic masking in Photoshop, Lightroom and other
editing apps, as well as the AI-magic of generative and content-aware fill, object move and the like.
So where do we draw theincreasingly blurry - line between what is a photo created by you the person pressing the shutter button, and what is an image create by a mixture of your technical decisions and then AI enhanced pixel manipulation? Note the change in term there – photo and image. But even that distinction is being shaded as the capabilities applied as standard by our cameras and phones lean more on computational image processing to give you a ‘better’ shot.
I generated Dreaming of Electric Sheep in Midjourney using the following prompt: “Create a human but robotic head of a middle aged close cropped bearded man with a full head of silver hair in right profile. Streams of AI data flow across the field of view. Light background. Photorealistic, hyper-real and images and text in the data streams. In the area the head is looking at add in a background of electric sheep grazing on a green field.” The image was then upscaled in Topaz Gigapixel 8 (another AI tool) to 4000px. I called it “Dreaming of Electric Sheep” - homage to Philip K Dick (a sci-fi writer I’ve always loved).
Outside the immediate tech issues, AI offers huge potential in photography. Accessibility for those unable to manipulate fiddly camera controls will be enhanced
with speed and neural interfaces –we’ll be able to talk to our cameras before long. Creative ways to let AI ‘learn’ your preferred style of image and processing, and then bring this knowledge into the creation process is being explored with gadgets like Arsenal and software like Imagen. If Elon Musk’s Neuralink develops (as tech like it certainly will) how long before we are creating images based on our memories and thoughts, rather than what is physically in front of us in the current moment?
For me, photography is a form of expression. When I make the choices of where to shoot, what to point my camera at, what camera, lens and other accessories to use, I’m making a journey towards an imagined image. My choice then of ISO, shutter speed, aperture - sometimes I get what I expected, sometimes the camera ends up with something different than the image in my mind’s eye. And that’s OK too, because then I reflect and hopefully learn. Or maybe I just accept what I ended up with and just enjoy it, and the process that led up to it. If AI is part of this mix, that’s fine, just as my camera’s light metering is something I don’t even think about these days. As long as photography lets me make images that make me feel something, I’ll be happy.
Well, until my next next attack of G.A.S. {Gear Acquisition Syndrome}
Joe Houghton (www.houghtonphoto.com) delivers online talks, courses and 1-1 tuition on photography to clubs and individuals around the world. He has written three books on photography, all available on Amazon – see his author page at https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/Joe-Houghton/author/B07XWQRNJQ
Contact: joe.houghton@gmail.com
PALLI GAJREE OAM HonFRPS
SEVENTY YEARS OF UNBROKEN MEMBERSHIP OF THE RPS
ELAINE HERBERT OAM ARPS HONORARY SECRETARY, AUSTRALIAN CHAPTER
Sudershan Kumar (‘Palli’) Gajree has reached a significant milestone. He’s just celebrated 70 years of unbroken RPS membership since joining the Society in December 1954. Over those years photography has played a momentous part in Palli’s life, and now aged almost 94 and an active member of the Creative Eye, Digital Imaging and Landscape Groups and the Australian Chapter, he’s still as enthusiastic and committed as ever.
Palli was born and brought up in Kenya. Even as a youngster he was keenly interested in photography and after finishing secondary school he went to the United Kingdom to undertake a two-year full-time course in photography at the Manchester College of Technology (now the Manchester Metropolitan University). He passed the final examination with distinction and was awarded a College Prize for excellence.
He was committed to specializing in portrait photography and was fortunate to get a job in the West-End studio of Walter Bird FRPS FIBP, a famous portrait photographer of the day. Two years’ experience gained from this studio gave him valuable skills of portraiture, including lighting, rules of composition, retouching negatives, printing and more.
Walter Bird was himself a keen Salon exhibitor and this encouraged Palli to compete with other exhibitors around the world. His first exhibition success came in 1957 when one of his portraits Malcolm Grasby, taken at Walter Bird Studios, was accepted and shown at the London Salon of Photography. The same portrait was subsequently selected and reproduced in The British Journal Photographic Almanac 1958, as well as in The Photograms of the Year 1958.
Palli Gajree
On returning to Kenya in 1958 Palli set up his own portrait and commercial studio in Nairobi. Although successful, he found it a cut-throat business; people were more after quantity and less interested in getting professional service.
So he then took a job as a senior cameraman with the Kenya Government Information Services, gaining wide experience in other branches of photography – Press, Photojournalism, Architectural, Industrial, Wildlife, Landscape – and in 1963 he was made Head of the Photographic Section. Palli recalls that when Jomo Kenyatta became President of Kenya, he was asked to take his official portrait in colour (not easy in those days) for circulation world-wide.
Life changed enormously in 1972 when Palli and his family moved to Australia and settled in Melbourne. He became a Principal Tutor then full-time lecturer in photography at Swinburne Institute of Technology (now Swinburne University of Technology) until retirement some 22 years later. Palli found teaching immensely enjoyable and stimulating, with the tertiary students bringing challenging ideas to be solved photographically.
The Late Walter Bird FIBP FRPS
Malcolm Grasby
Gordon Taylor AIBP ARPS
RPS membership has been a most important of Palli’s life. He gained his ARPS in Portraiture in 1956 and his FRPS in 1975 with black and white prints of African Wildlife. Then in 1989 he was awarded an Honorary FRPS ‘for promoting photography over many years particularly in Kenya and Australia, as an exhibitor, judge and teacher.’ And, on his 90th birthday in March 2021 he received a special RPS President and Council Commendation for ‘Meritorious Service,’ the first time this RPS Award was made. His work is represented in the RPS Permanent Collection in the V&A as well as in collections of several other international photographic societies. And the RPS Australian Chapter has been most fortunate to have had Palli as a member since its inception nearly forty years ago. His huge support has been invaluable.
Exhibiting, lecturing and judging, locally and internationally, have been a major interest and he’s gained many skill and service honours from leading photographic societies around the world. Especially significant is his recognition by the International Federation of Photographic Art, awarding Palli their highest skill and service honours (MFIAP and HonEFIAP). And in 1989 Palli was awarded his most treasured award - the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for ‘Service to Photography.’
With the advent of digital photography Palli took on the challenges of Photoshop and Lightroom with his characteristic enthusiasm. He now uses a Canon 5D Mark IV and shoots images in RAW exclusively. He likes experimenting
Coke’s Hartebeest
Giraffe under Kilimanjaro Triplets
with different Photoshop tools – as shown in his images Contemporary Moorings and Painterly Effect. In another example his image High-Rise uses Photoshop’s Architecture Sketch Smart Object together with ‘Eclectic Photo Efex’, a process devised by Gavin Phillips. And another recent interest of Palli’s has been converting a Canon 40D to take infrared images, a new challenge which he is enjoying immensely.
Looking back over his 70+ years in photography, Palli says he has enjoyed greatly the opportunities he’s had to make contact with international photographers and thus develop an ability to assess constructively a wide range of photographic disciplines. Most importantly, he values the longlasting friendships formed with other photographers across the globe, some going back for over sixty years.
We in the RPS have been so very fortunate that Palli has been such an active and supportive member of the Society for so long, always willing to share his expertise, his creative image making and his friendship. He’s an inspiration to us all.
